Logically, it should be a slam dunk of “Not Guilty” on all charges, since the evidence clearly shows Zimmerman was acting in justifiable self-defense as he was being beaten by Trayvon Martin. Or at least there is a reasonable doubt as to self-defense, which the law requires result in a Not Guilty verdict.

I’ve said it before, this was a case which never should have been brought, and it wasn’t. Not until a carefully orchestrated professionally managed publicity campaign based on false racial accusations, resulting in a Special Prosecutor.

You know the rest, or at least you thought you did until today.

We knew that Obama pumped up the racial angle when he commented that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon. I wonder which Trayvon that was, the one the jury heard about who just liked to play video games with his siblings? Or the Trayvon of the cell phone, bragging not long before this incident about his fighting prowess and how he knew how to sucker punch people in the nose? But the jury never will know that.

We also knew that Eric Holder had the DOJ investigate the case, and that the FBI found no evidence that Zimmerman was racist or motivated by racism.

Judicial Watchannounced today that it has obtained documents in response to local, state, and federal records requests revealing that a little-known unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Community Relations Service (CRS), was deployed to Sanford, FL, following the Trayvon Martin shooting to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman.

The way the trial has been conducted is an equal travesty.

The prosecution is throwing everything against the wall, including conflicting and inconsistent theories that Trayvon was on the bottom of the fight screaming and alternatively that Trayvon was on top pulling back.

Similarly the prosecution creates obsessive distractions such as whether Zimmerman “followed” Martin, even though that is legally irrelevant.

We have had the strange spectacle of the prosecution attacking its own police witnesses who had the temerity to believe George Zimmerman’s story and find it consistent and credible. The law enforcement world has been turned on its head in this prosecution, because it had to be turned on its head to justify the prosecution.

If you want to understand just how dirty this prosecution case has been, consider one bit of evidence which probably slipped by most viewers.

The prosecution elicited testimony from defense gun shot wound forensic expert Vincent DiMaio that he participated in studies of gunshot wounds on live animals (under a federally regulated and sanctioned program in which the animals were under anesthesia). What’s the relevance of that? Nothing. Except that the prosecution knew that there were animal owners on the jury, and this was an attempt to poison the jury on something having nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman.

It’s all coming together in this case.

Racial politics supported by State power.

I hope the jury views the evidence with the dispassion of the original prosecutors. I fear it will not.

“Welcome to Trayvongate, where the President of the United States used both the bully pulpit, the Department of Justice and sly media manipulation to gin up charges of racism in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting. Now that the trial is almost finished and the only act of racism mentioned so far came from the victim–Martin called Zimmerman ‘a creepy ass cracker’ according to testimony–the cynical and repeated use of the race card by the White house is even more abhorrent.”

“Look at the residents of this ‘gated community’ who lived just in that one spot. It is more diverse than a Democrat photo-op. This neighborhood had young and old, Asians and blacks and whites and Hispanics all living next to each other in peace, but needing a gates and a neighborhood watch to protect themselves from outsiders.”

This case never was about race. It’s infuriating and disheartening how the narrative was manipulated, and how the State was a party to it.

Update 7-11-2013: Add this Bill Lee interview to the mountain of evidence that the prosecution of George Zimmerman has been a political scam.

The George Zimmerman investigation was hijacked “in a number of ways” by outside forces, said the former police chief of Sanford, Florida.

Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial, told CNN’s George Howell in an exclusive interview that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice.

“It was (relayed) to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn’t care if it got dismissed later,” he said. “You don’t do that.”

When Sanford police arrived on the scene on February 26, 2012, after Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, they conducted a “sound” investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene, he said.

What has happened to the rule of law and more importantly can it be fixed? This whole case is a repeat of 2006 in the Michael Lee Anderson boot trial case…right down to the letter. The same characters namely Crump, Jackson, Sharpton, NAACP and then Senator Obama whipped up such a racial furor that a prominent ME and a commisioner were removed from their jobs,8 guards were charged with manslaughter and the media did their job of fueling the fire.It is exactly what has happened in this case even the family of the boy using an old picture in the media. The end result was the guards were found not guilty, the boys family got 2.5 million and a lot of innocent lives were ruined.It seems now to be the MO and now it’s poor Mr. Zimmerman’s turn and I want to know why no-one is stopping this injustice. This case is even worse because it also involves a gun and the lesson here will be..even if you own a legal gun and use it to save your life,we still have the power to put you in jail.They want it to have a chilling affect on gun owners. If you don’t bend to our will we will criminalize you. I feel so sorry for Mr. Zimmerman and so helpless to do anything but I’m hopefull that this jury will be as wise as the 2006 was and find him innocent. When will the public stand up and say enough and do something about this injustice in the so-called justice system.

Do believe you are right on target, Uncle Samuel.I share the same thoughts.

From this devious bastards original indications of:
1. Born in Kenya
2. To my knowledge, still NO release of “his” Columbia college status, including grades.
3. Images of him in various Islamic ‘dress’.
4. Despise of Israel and of Jews in general.
5. Pushing the Race Card, hard and heavy, when advantageous to HIS cause(s).
6. Words ousting an NON-saint in Mubarak, yet silent and miffed that Morsi has been ousted.

I still don’t see it. I started questioning the case when I found that Mark Furhman had (illegally) gone over the wall into OJ’s compound,, and that was where some of the incriminating evidence was found. Why should we believe cops who would lie to the judge about why they didn’t bother to get a warrant to search the place?

The other part of it is that I could never get straight whether it was supposed to be a crime of passion or a crime of premeditation. Visibly it looked like a crime of passion, but would have taken almost split second timing and a lot of planning.

Then, we find out just how stupid the guy really is, when he thinks that he can go into a casino in Las Vegas with a gun to reacquire stuff that he had lost in a lawsuit by the Goldman family. Pretty much everyone in NV knows that it is a crime to even walk in the door of a casino there with a firearm, and there is probably nowhere outside government facilities that have as much video surveillance. I just find it quite hard to reconcile the planning of the murder(s) with anyone stupid enough to do what he tried to do in the casino in Las Vegas.

I don’t see a similarity between the Simpson case and the Zimmerman case, except that the prosecution team in both cases is not very good. The police had a compelling argument for entering the grounds of the Simpson estate and even the house, with the permission of Simpson’s daughter, based upon exigent circumstances. If it was a crime of passion committed by an ex-husband, a very plausible scenario, it is not uncommon for the murderer to then attempt to end his own life. To delay could have been catastrophic, if such were the case. That such was not the case was fortunate for Mr. Simpson. This was never adequately explored by the prosecution.

Also, there was a very strong circumstantial case against Simpson and the evidence collection errors really were minor. It was a case that could have reasonably been decided either way. And it ended in Simpson’s acquittal.

The Zimmerman case, on the other hand, was almost a classic open and shut self defense case. There is absolutely no dispute over who shot TM. There is no reasonable dispute that GZ suffered a significant physical assault. There is no reasonable dispute that TM was bending over GZ when GZ shot him. There is absolutely no evidence that GZ followed TM with the intent of shooting him or harming him in any way. There is strong evidence that GZ was not the physical aggressor, as TM had no evidence of ever being struck and GZ had an abundance of such injury. There was never any good faith case against GZ. This was simply a malicious prosecution carried out for political gain. Something that stands totally against every precept that this nation was founded upon. This case can not, reasonably, result in any verdict other than acquittal. If it does, result in a conviction, then the consequences could be very dire.

I fail to understand how the prosecution failing to prove OJ did it has anything to do with the state railroading Zimmerman.

The prosecution in this trial did nothing to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Zimmerman did anything beyond defending himself, yet he will more then likely spend the rest of his life in prison, thanks to the fact that America has it’s first Affirmative Action President.

I am disgusted with this whole thing, as should anyone else who fails to see the dangerous president being set here.

I would not presume to speak for M. Simon, but I believe the connection he makes between OJ and GZ trials is that both have a racial component that has prejudiced many peoples’ presumption of innocence or guilt, and that in both cases the prosecution hasn’t proven its case (IMHO in the former due to incompetence and overconfidence, in the latter due to a profound lack of real useful evidence).

I did not miss the animal reference; nor have i missed the mostly white all woman jury. I am also wondering which will be a game breaker IMO if the judge allows so many punishments for the jurors to choose from.

It’s a relative concept. About ten years ago I remembered reading about a shooting by a Latino police officer of a black person in Miami and the officer was considered “white.” At about the same time, there was an incident with a Caucasian police officer accused of abusing a Latino suspect who was identified as “Hispanic.”

So basically Hispanics/Latinos may be considered either “white” or “Hispanic/Latino” only insofar as the identification supports the narrative of “whitey is racist.”

I am curious as to who the gentleman is who sits in the front row of the gallery everyday? He is somewhat balding with silver gray hair and never shows any expression and looks forward the entire time he is there.

That is correct. Both charges come with 30 years. Jury won’t get to hear that and if they convict on a lesser charge thinking the punishment is also less they will be shocked once they get out of sequestration and learn the truth.

This farce of a show trial — put on without a scintilla of evidence to support a finding of probable cause to support an indictment; pursued solely to placate the bloodlust of the race-baiting black “leaders,” to appease the black community at large and proponents of the theory of perpetual black victimization, and to promote the political careers of self-aggrandizing prosecutors and politicians, with the aid of a compliant, biased and lazy liberal media which actively seeks to promote the narrative of perpetual black victimization at the hands of ceaseless white racism, truth be damned — will mercifully come to a conclusion, hopefully with the only outcome which is appropriate, given the total paucity of evidence provided by the State to support its baseless charges, to wit, an acquittal.

Any property damage and bloodshed resulting from Zimmerman’s acquittal can squarely be laid at the feet of Angela Corey, Obama, Sharpton, Jackson, et. al, the rush-to-judgment race baiters who fanned the flames of this case from the outset, for whom truth was not as important as reflexive, blind solidarity with the Martin family based on nothing more than shared skin color.

As others have noted, it’s also incredibly ironic that, after all of the race-baiting posturing and flame-fanning, innuendo, allegations of racist motivation and character on the part of Zimmerman, etc., have been tossed around ad nauseam by the so-called black “leaders,” race victimization organizations, Obama, et al (and parroted by a compliant, biased and lazy liberal media), the evidence reveals that the only individual who used racial epithets and possessed a racist mindset on that fateful night was Trayvon Martin, who called Zimmerman both a “n!gga” and a “cracka.” The Martin family attorney tried to dismiss the significance of this by explaining — unconvincingly and rather hypocritically — that this was merely “the way teens talk.”

If this jury hangs, would Judge Farley preside over a retrial? Can the defense demonstrate her egregious partiality and request a new judge?

Would the testimony in this trial be on the record for the next? Even if prosecution could build a whole case with new and uncompromised witnesses, or question these same witnesses competently (in a way that doesn’t open all the barn doors they did this time) the defense could still make use of all the damaging testimony from this trial, calling all the witnesses the prosecution would try to bury.

Defense in a second trial would gain advantage from full discovery and time to examine the phone records (and extablish their authenticity). They’d have the benefit of deposing Crump et al. at leisure and be fully prepared. They’d simply have more points of attack on the weak prosecution case. They could be more aggressive in their opening statement, brushing back the prosecution’s hail-Mary gambits.

If there is violence in the streets over a failure to convict, will that really improve the jury pool for the prosecution?

In short, is there ANY FACTOR that improves the State’s prospects in a retrial?

In retrial state could elect not to present GZ’s hearsay statements to police, essentially “forcing” him to take the stand and undergo cross to present his side of story. The state wins most retrials after hung juries, although in part this statistic could reflect selection bias, with the state electing not to retry its weaker cases.

Or, a new trial could allow phone evidence supressed by the Police that apparrently shows Trayvon attempting to sell an unregistered 22 caliber pistol. Or, could mention the slimjim found in the bushes where Trayvon was hiding.

We all need to remember that the jury is not seeing ANY of the behind the scenes wrangling between the Judge, defense and prosecution nor are they watching ANY of the unfounded, completely false and blatantly biased comments by ALL of the so called “News” channels.

The jury is going into deliberations with only the knowledge of what they had gleaned from the witnesses in the courtroom during the last few weeks.

What worries me most is the lesser charge of aggravated assault judge Nelson is considering. The jury not knowing the sentence this carries may elect to use that to provide some level of ‘closure’ to the Martin family.

Have faith in the jury to come back with the right verdict of ‘Not guilty’.

Trials are all about how little truth the jury is allowed to hear. If you ever serve on a jury and they ask you to get up and leave the room – that means they are going to say something truthful that they do not want you to hear.

Forgive me if this has already been pointed out, but I’ve heard that the defense intends on objecting to any conviction on a lesser charge. In their minds, and I agree absolutely, an acquital of a charge based on self-defense is an acquital for all possible charges. Makes perfect sense.

If they do not object, then I would imagine they would hammer that though home in their summation.

You are correct. Judge Nelson has not yet ruled if that will be allowed. If allowed, Mark O’Mara will drive the point home to the jury that an acquittal of murder 2 is an acquittal of all charges. A lesser charge of aggravated assault is also being considered.

The state will argue that GZ’s flashlight was a deadly weapon. That was confirmed by the defense witness Dennis Root.

I really don’t see how the jury could return a guilty verdict based on that definition. TM did not have a scratch on him besides the abrasion on his knuckle and the obvious gun shot wound that was clearly put there by an act of GZ defending himself from great bodily harm by TM.

All of these lessor charges and I say charges being there are several variations is a 2 fur 1 for Obama in gun control. All the lessor charges seem to involve possession of a firearm which also could carry a stiff penalty. I don’t know how the CCW would affect it.

Listening to Rush yesterday when he did a guest appearance on The Five, and it was pointed out that we were assured that with the election of Barack Obama II, that we would finally have racial healing. And, yet, we find that the racial tensions are stronger than ever, and that the fans of such are being fanned by the same people who promised us that they would be ending. The reality is that the Dems gain and keep power nationally, and in a lot of states, by doing just that, fanning racial tensions. This got an unprecedented number of Blacks out to vote last year.

I worry here, because if GZ is convicted, a lot of people are going to believe that it was for purely racist reasons. He was indicted to get black votes. He was tried to get black votes. And, the state and feds used public monies to incite racial tensions, in order to make it more likely that he was convicted

If GZ is sacrificed that this time to appease the black community for their inability to properly raise and civilize their young black males, then who is next? Who is safe? Is it time for the middle class to start organizing itself against all the rent seekers and takers in the country? Is it time to take away much of the power that we have given these governments, if they are going to actively support those groups that attempt to destroy what we think most dear? Etc.

What ticks me off more than anything is the BLATANT lies trying to conceal the fact that Zimmerman is of a Minority Group. He is Hispanic, not white.

I can imagine the Oh Sh!t moments in newsrooms when that hot potato was thrown in their laps and they had to juggle it to keep the heat off.

WHITE HISPANIC. That’s the ticket!

Now, if we can just wrap this case up before the majority minority group organizes to fight racism against them, we’ll be in the clear. Doesn’t matter if GZ later gets out on appeal. Appearances are all that matter. Got to save Corey, Holder, the POS, Sharpie, Jesse at all costs.

Meanwhile, the rule of law goes down the drain and just as in the Obamacare fiasco with the POS rewriting law by delaying employer mandates for another year the American People hand over another wide swath of our power to the administration fothermuckers.

What is also interesting to me is that you will not see demonstrations from La Raza in support of Zimmerman.

This is because, regardless of the actual interests of the people they pretend to represent, all Collectivist “leaders” are unified in one goal; fostering the Collective.

People like Obama actually militate fundamentally AGAINST the expressed goals and preferences of black Americans, who want school vouchers, for instance, and who are generally supporters of traditional marriage.

The Collectivist support for illegal alien amnesty is hugely against the interests of black Americans, who now suffer under the worst unemployment since at least the Great Depression.

And, let’s be clear, Zimmerman, as Glenn Reynolds points out, is more black than was Plessy of Plessy v. Ferguson. But this is not about people as individuals, or even as racial groups with their own interests.

This is about a narrative, ginned up and fanned with one purpose. Power for the Collective. That is the bald fact, and that is where we need to attack.

“This is because, regardless of the actual interests of the people they pretend to represent, all Collectivist ‘leaders’ are unified in one goal; fostering the Collective.”

Perfectly said…and I’m likely to steal the line, with attribution where appropriate. I’d add that “collectivist leaders” tend to secure their own position in the ranks of those equals that are more equal. Oink. Oink.

Admittedly, I always thought GZ’s story rang true. Further, I believe that the MSM’s disinformation campaign for this case was, and is, despicable. But I never really “liked” GZ. I always assumed he probably was a bit of a jerk (not that being a jerk makes one guilty of crime). However, after watching this case unfold in the courtroom, I now think GZ comes across as a very nice, kind man who went out of his way to help his neighbors. I’m just hoping that the jurors are also left with a favorable view of GZ.

My biggest fear is that this is Florida, so despite the fact that the state’s case is a big bag of nothing, I have no idea what the jury will do.

I don’t get any impression of GZ being a jerk. I thought for a while that he might be kind of stupid, but I don’t think that any more either. I think this was a clash of two worlds: a black male teen from a rougher neighborhood where people understand the gang/thug ethic and whose assumption is “snitches get stitches” visits a middle class neighborhood that has paid a lot of money to live in a gated community to keep that world at bay. But it didn’t work. Some thugs got behind the gates or even lived behind the gates (Emmanuel Burgess). But the neighborhood assumptions are generally middle class, with a work ethic and responsible positions in life who would have too much to lose by acting like gangsta thugs. That night, GZ was being the eyes and ears of the community for the PD as trained by the NWP trainer lady, and he was following at a distance to observe and answer the dispatcher’s questions–he was not in hot pursuit or chasing down TM. He thought he lost him but had a reasonable fear of stating his address because it was so dark around the dogwalk that he didn’t know if TM would hear the address and show up at his house. TM saw GZ as meek, weak, puffy, an easy target, and thought this would be a good opportunity to act with his catfisher on the phone to witness the fight, so he could pound a white guy (or even kill him) to get shtreet cred or fulfill a requirement of gang initiation. There were apparently going to be no witnesses in TM’s mind. He didn’t count on GZ yelling and screaming for help and drawing witness attention. He didn’t count on GZ being a CCW holder, trained, chambered, and packing. This was a clash of worlds and operating assumptions.

I have a sliver of hope. I realize that the prosecution and TM’s parents have made much of a dead child, teenager, young boy…blah, blah, blah…trying to pull sympathy heart strings to almost breaking.

But who was on the stand as being TM’s girlfriend/friend… the 19 year old rather large woman with a very bad attitude. The only other peer presented as a witness was his 4 years older brother. A young man in his 20s who hung out with TM on a regular basis.

The impression for the jury is not some innocent child. The impression for the jury is that this was a young black man. Is it racist to be afraid of young black men or just a clear understanding of statistics? Unfortunately, groups of young black women also put me on alert… but that is because I read the local crime news and personal experience.

That jury must think, why didn’t RJ call 911 when she heard confrontation and fighting sounds, assumed it was a fight, and the call was cut off? The jury is middle class and that’s what a middle class person would do. They have to assume that RJ egged TM on and/or fighting was normal for TM and RJ wasn’t worried about TM getting beat up or losing. RJ’s not calling 911 screams volumes.

I try to imagine what could be going through the mind of the 6 women on the jury. Unfortunately, given that there are six women who in 18 months never heard of GZ or TM indicates that I can’t even begin to comprehend their mindset.

I really only started paying attention when the trial started. I am a busy person. The advantage is I hadn’t paid attention to the media campaign, so I am perceiving the evidence like these jurors are. I am in many ways like these jurors. I hope I am anticipating their framework of understanding accurately.

Let’s start from the top. Trayvon Martin is dead, so unless the savior decides to raise him for a court appearance, he can’t defend himself. And absent some witness coming forward, Zimmerman would be a fool not to place the onus of the entire incident on Martin’s shoulders. A man being innocent until proven guilty in our system, he SHOULD get off.

That being said, the thing that has always irritated me about this shooting, is the utter inability of some people to ask themselves how the whole incident went down. Wounds on Zimmerman, do not mean that he didn’t in some way commence the incident, and the way I understand it, under the Florida law, you can’t instigate a fight, and then shoot the other guy when you start to lose. People talk about a nasty racial undercurrent to the trial and there is one all right. In fact I believe there are two. The first, is the automatic raising of the “black thug ” stereotype. Indeed some blacks are thugs, but not all or even most. And it’s been my experience, that thugs are not particularly dedicated. So if the weather is bad – like a dark and rainy night, they pretty much go indoors. They don’t run around in the rain and “stalk” some guy they don’t even know, who may wish them harm. The second thing, is that blacks are never allowed to be children. The seemingly spring right from the stroller to full grown “thughood”. That goes back to the attempt to blacken Martin’s reputation in order to make Zimmerman look better. For example by pointing out that his Facebook pages had all sorts of crap on them. Yes – like every other teenager out there. Any sign that a black wasn’t utterly perfect when young, is a “sure sign” that he will graduate to a lifetime career of armed robbery and murder. No doubt about it; a loud band of white teenagers is a loud band of teenagers, a loud band of black teenagers is a band of mongols bent upon rape and pillage. and I’m fairly sure I will leap through the TV screen and strangle the next poster (yes, we blacks are all violent) who justifies the shooting of a black in one place, by the actions of a black somewhere else in the country. This from people who are always bitching – justifiably – about being painted with the broad brush of “racism”. Because too many people always see “hulking black thug” when ever you say black teenager, the real tall pencil thin Martin has disappeared.

Can anybody find any incidents of a black man shooting an unarmed white teenager, and being home before the body cooled? That was the original racial aspect of this entire incident – the speed with which the police conducted a perfunctory investigation, and then let Zimmerman go. AND if you believe that the Prosecution ever wanted to try Zimmerman you haven’t been paying attention. What prosecutor – who wants to win the case – puts such a collection of ill prepared witnesses on the stand? The prosecutor is simply giving it a; “see we did our best” – and trying for the outcome they wanted in the first place. Can you imagine a prosecutor in a case like this going with a white an Hispanic jury? No matter which way it goes they are going to blame the jury – watch.

[…] The irony and the tragedy in this case are that in assuming this was a racially motivated crime, the federal and state authorities (including the president, who publicly identified with Martin by saying Martin could have been his son) turned a simple self-defense case into a racial circus. As Cornell law professor William Jacobson explained: […]